Take A Bow
by Reda
Summary: /one shot/ kind of AU / Brook plays a piano piece for a performance and all of his nakama seem to care except Zoro, who slept through it and missed it all. Or did he? Brook/Zoro nakamaship


**Author Notes: **Present tense. I don't use this tense very often. Also, this is kind of AU and totally taken from a real-life setting. My music major recitals are coming back to me...

**Disclaimer: **I don't own One Piece.

**Day/Theme: **Sept 22 - "take a bow"

~!~

Take A Bow

~!~

Brook sets his fingers to the piano. The music is soft, sweet, and yet eerie. The audience is captivated. He glances out, sees his nakama, each listening attentively, except the green haired swordsman who looks asleep. The music takes a sad turn as he plays with the chords, composing in his mind as he improvises.

A baby cries. Someone coughs. At least Zoro isn't snoring.

Brook continues to play, feeding his emotion into the notes, making music. He lets it take him to another plane, feeling alive through the sounds he makes with bones that can still play as well as flesh. He hears other instruments accompany him, other voices singing, as if from far away. He soars through the memories, fighting the tears.

How great this show has become. He cannot suppress the emotion and he has to work harder not to cry. He wishes all of his nakama - all of them - could hear this, could feel this. He wishes all those dead can hear from their second lives. He wishes the sleeping swordsman were not asleep so he could hear as well. It is better luck to assume the dead can hear the music over the dreaming Zoro.

The performance ends on one note, left to ring through the room. Brook stands. The audience follows. He bows. They clap.

His nakama congratulate him. Nami is in tears. Luffy is laughing, whistling the main tune. Sanji is suave and caring with a few simple words. Robin simply smiles and nods. Franky does a dance and says how hard it was to hold back during the musical performance. Chopper tries to sing the tune back to him, and Usopp shows a quick sketch of his interpretation.

Zoro yawns.

~!~

Later, Zoro approaches Brook with a sake bottle in hand. The swords are at his side as usual, and he comes up to the piano as if he were about to fight an enemy. He glances at the skeleton and then at the piano.

Brook tries not to look at him, tries to ignore him. He is still upset that Zoro had fallen asleep, that the swordsman was so rude. He sets his fingers in chord position, ready to throw his frustration into the music, for playing is the best way to release tension.

And then Zoro takes a gulp of the sake and points at the instrument. "Oi, teach me how to do that."

Brook blinks and turns to face him. "Do what?"

"Play music in a dream." The swordsman appears embarrassed yet determined. His face flushes slightly as Brook stares him down, and Zoro hides it with another swig of sake.

"You heard?"

Zoro smiles around the bottle. "Every note." He lowers the bottle, reaches around, and touches the white sword at his waist. "Kuina liked it."

Brook finds that the green haired swordsman has surprised him again. Unpredictable. A nakama with a heart, though it is hidden. Meaning well yet unwilling to change habits - but still meaning well. And finding unique ways to make up for doing wrong.

"Kuina is...?"

Zoro glances away, staring into the distance. His mind shifts somewhere else for a moment, and Brook recognizes the daze, the memory delving. "Someone you would have liked." He pauses. "She would have kicked my ass for sleeping."

Brook finds himself smiling. "What did you dream of?"

Zoro looks back, blinks. The sake bottle gets put on the top of the piano and Brook makes a mental note to tell him not to put such things on a fragile instrument. "Her. A bird." He pauses again, crosses his arms, and stares at the ground. "Death." Brook thinks its the end but after a breath, the swordsman keeps speaking. "Rain. The sea. My life before..."

Now he stops, shakes his head, and the lost look disappears.

Brook smiles softly. "It seems my music did reach you after all."

Zoro laughs lightly, puts a hand behind his head. "Yeah...I was kind of..." He moves, standing beside Brook, staring at the piano keys. "...wondering how you did that."

With a new feeling in his heart, a rekindled hope for the world, Brook grabs at the swordsman's wrists and pulls the hands to the keys. "It's music." He makes Zoro play a C, then a G, taking the swordsman through a circle of fifths. "Lots of concentration. Lessons. Training. Much like learning the sword."

The green haired man grunts and sits down beside the musician, not noticing the cook standing in the doorway. Brook glances at Sanji and prays the cook doesn't comment, because Zoro would never return if he were caught so early. Teaching has never occurred to him before, but he is discovering that he is enjoying himself more than he ever could simply playing his own creations. He doesn't want it to end, and besides, this is a great way to bond with the greater swordsman that didn't include talk about swords - a different way, a nakamaship built on meeting each other half way.

Much to his happiness, Sanji does not say a word. The blond haired cook simply stands and watches the scene unfolding. Brook mentally thanks the man.

Zoro growls. "This isn't making me see anything. Show me how to do what you did."

Brook laughs. "Not so quickly, Zoro-san. You did not learn Santoryuu in a day. You cannot master the music in a day, either."

Zoro grunts again, but he is listening. He is willing to learn. And Brook feels his heart - if he has a heart - jump for joy, because the man he admires is now looking to him for direction. It is a great feeling.

And he must remember to write a song later to commemorate the bonding of nakama. It is high time he wrote a happy dance tune, after all. Or maybe a waltz...

~!~

_A/N: Ah hah. I'm such a music nerd and it definitely shows through in this. I may take quizzes that say my personality is most like Chopper, but I do find myself clinging to Brook more and more. Because if I were on a pirate crew, I would so totally be the musician. (Oh, and there's just not enough Zoro/Brook nakamaship out there! - No wonder, imagining Zoro playing piano makes me giddy for some reason ~) _


End file.
